Your tone of voice needs to be engaging, personable and – dare we say – fun(!) if it holds any hopes of resonating with your audience.
In an overstimulated world of advertising and marketing jargon, it can be easy to forget that behind every brand, no matter the product or service, is people.
But remembering this is key to understanding how to build lasting connections with your audiences.
Why every brand needs their own tone of voice
With a unique, direct and personable tone of voice, your brand’s going to stand out.
Going beyond what it is that they sell or what growth targets they want to hit, brands that dig deeper into the people, ethos and personality of their organisation are able to curate messaging that speaks to their customers in a way that they’ll actually listen.
This idea takes inspiration from the way in which people connect with each other every day. We all have differing personalities, voices, attitudes and aesthetics – and that applies to brands, too.
Just because your business is, say, a B2B engineering company, doesn’t mean you shouldn’t talk like a human being.
Be Recognisable, Distinctive and Human
Your tone of voice should be recognisable, it should feel distinctive, and it should sound human. Forget about Business-to-Business and Business-to-Consumer, think Person-to-Person.
When you think this way you can put yourself in your customer’s shoes. What do they want? What do they need? What will make them listen?
1. Use your values as a lens
What are the core values of your organisation? What do you represent? For example, a core value could be that your service is personal; so your messaging could be curated in a way that it feels fairly informal, approachable and friendly.
2. What are you selling?
It’s important to remember what it is you’re selling. Your brand’s values might be that it’s ‘personal’, but if the product is a high-end fashion brand, then you may want to take on messaging that feels more commanding and noble.
3. Remember your audience
If you know who it is you want to market to, you can start to put yourself in their shoes and consider what they may want to hear from a brand such as yours.
“Consider what action you want your audience to take. What do you want them to Think, Feel, and Do? Use these motivations to help you write clearly and persuasively.
The Tone of Voice shows us how to communicate, these tips and tricks help us better engage and make every customer interaction count”
– Jen Jacobs, Brand Strategy & Design, Crush
Emotion matters – no matter your market
We know that B2B and B2C are different, but when it comes to establishing your unique brand proposition and tone of voice, it’s important to remember that everyone is a consumer.
Ultimately, people buy from people – not businesses, so tone of voice should be just as important in B2B as it is in B2C.
In some cases, it might even be more important in B2B, as a way for brands to create emotional customer connections and message differentiation against a duller crowd.
“In most mature sectors, the variance between one company’s offer and another’s is vanishingly small. This means that focusing purely on features and benefits will only get you so far.
Building a brand that creates an emotional connection will be the difference that gets you over the line.”
– Chris Vannozzi, Account Director, Crush
If you’d like to hear more on why B2B brands should embrace emotion, check out our thought-piece for Transform Magazine.